The House Of Hades
by Hurry Up. We're Dreaming
Summary: This a carry on from Mark of Athena, more chapters are on the way. Hope you like it ! In chapter two we return to Leo aboard the argo 2. Please, Please, Please Review it ! :)
1. Chapter 1

ANNABETH

Falling, falling, the crack of light above us fading. The only thing I had was Percy' hand in mine ... Would we ever stop, or would we just be falling forever, deep into Tartarus?

Screaming pierced my mind. Imagine billions of monsters all wailing in their damnation. Imagine the horrible cry given by prey as the predators closed for the kill. Amplify this by a billion and you have a pretty good idea of what the first stage of Tartarus sounds like. Fear coursed through my body. Percy gripped my hand. Focus on that; I still had Percy. Still, it seemed hopeless. No one aside from almost a Titan had made it out of Tartarus successfully. What chance did two half-bloods who both looked like they'd lost a fight with either a giant spider or a roomful of sheep's wool? The shrill sound continued, and five minutes or so later Percy muttered hoarsely, "I've fought monsters gods and three flipping titans but how do you fight a loud endless hole?"

My mind was racing, although this is easier said than done when you're plummeting into eternal damnation at a trillion miles per hour while thousands of monsters screamed at you. Somehow I doubted that stabbing the walls of the hole was the answer, but what we were supposed to do... There could be ledges at the walls of the cliff, but how were we even supposed to get to the wall? We could wait it out and just hope that it ended somewhere. But rumour says that the further down the pit, the worse the monster. Imagine this in the diary: Today I fought a giant spider, won, fell down for a bit and ran into Typhon. If some poor scientist of the future found that he'd think I was high.

I spotted the first one, an arch cut into the wall of the pit and a spiral staircase leading ... Well that would be a problem with the newly named SOD (staircase of death). I had no idea were it would lead; for all we knew SOD could lead to individual chambers. This sounded like an okay idea until I put it in perspective. Cut back to diary; so after GSOD (giant spider of death) and ages of falling, I went through another hole and got locked in a cell for eternity by Hades' minions. But hey, at least we had options.

PERCY

Well, I will admit that I was yelling. But I did think of the light source. I uncapped Riptide and strapped my flashlight to it with duct tape, amplifing both the torch light and the bronze glow. At least now I could see Annabeth's face.

I'm the one with a) the sword and b) a bunch of waves, so I was screaming while Annabeth thought of clever escape plan, which pretty much sums up our relationship. Anyway about five minutes later I stopped screaming, long enough to speak to her at least,

"Well this is new. I've fallen of cliffs and glaciers but in the world of holes my experience only lengthens to slightly deep puddles." I said.

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain, I'm thinking," she replied.

"Well I guess some things never change."

All I got was a sigh for my comedic genius. What happened to moral and team spirit? Honestly, I wondered, what is the underworld coming to?

Eventually I had to ask. 'So what are you thinking?'

"SOD," she replied.

"What?" I asked.

"Percy, as things or options run through my brain I shorten them to initials. I've been looking around -"

"Where have you been looking?"

"Over there," she replied, pointing into apparent nothingness, "there is an occasional arch or door cut into the walls of Tartarus, every thirty seconds or so they appear. Haven't you seen them?"

"I've had other things on my mind."

"Fine, seaweed brain. Anyway, they might be escape routes or-" she stopped herself.

"Or?" I asked

"Nothing," but I could tell she wasn't sure.

"I guess you have a plan for getting to the walls?" I asked.

She gave me a smile that made me wish I'd just kept quiet.


	2. Chapter 2

LEO

Let me explain. I am normally socially awkward with organic beings, but over the last days I had uniformly became the ship's counsellor. Although, that could have something to do with the fact that the rest of the Argo Two's crew broke down in floods of tears every three to six minutes.

I'm still shocked, those two had been leaders. It was like having the world pulled from under you, suddenly they didn't know which way to turn. I tried to keep morale high but whenever I tried to joke everybody just looked liked I'd poked them. I had set the course for camp - they should arrive in four days, which meant just before the Romans, but the atmosphere was still tense. One monster, one bit of bad luck and their friends would be on their own. And I'm not famed for having the best of luck.

But so far we hadn't been killed horribly by either some really big animal, something with a really confusing Greek name or something that is half human and half _ . Demigods usually count this as a success. Anyway, I had decided to stick to the air this time. After all, the son of Poseidon had been taken from us, and if that's not a sign telling me to stick off the waves I didn't know what was.

Well, I thought we were doing well until that night. I had set up a hammock five feet from the main controls so I could get to them quickly in an emergency. So at around two in the morning I was flung from my hammock and my head hit a mast with a sickening thud. A humanoid shape drifted through my vision and onto the deck. Was that ... No, it couldn't be ... It was.

"Leo," it muttered.

A scream ripped through the night, not my scream. A terrible sound.

Hazel's scream.


End file.
